Sonic Urbanism: Techno as a Spatial Act Part 2 Dissertation 2019 Emmy Bacharach Royal College of Art | UK This thesis concerns the significance of urban conditions in shaping musical culture, examining the case of Detroit techno, an African American genre of electronic dance music developed in the 1980s. Investigating the architectural, social and economic characteristics of Detroit, it studies the relationship between sound and space in the city. The thesis draws two major conclusions: firstly, that the post-industrial urban conditions of Detroit heavily influenced the development of techno music, and secondly, that the music itself has spatial implications for the city and beyond, as a generator of space.The most tangible way in which the urban environment contributed to techno culture was in the physical spaces that dance music grew in; in many cases, the spaces left behind by the dwindling automotive industry, from vacant downtown office buildings to abandoned automobile plants. Beyond these spatial opportunities, Detroit’s industrial character also manifests in the sound itself: the drum machines, electronic bleeps and chugging basslines echoing the rhythms of the assembly line. With its post-human aesthetic and cosmic narratives, Detroit techno also generates its own space. Whilst undeniably rooted in the post-industrial city, it evokes spaces that transcend the physical city, allowing the listener to imagine and occupy alternative worlds. Tutor(s) Igea Troiani